Just wanted to say Hi and also have a few ?

[packetstormin]

Hello everyone, my name is Justin and I am just getting back in to the hobby. My uncle was my hunting partner and he sadly passed away last March. Its finally starting to cool down here in PHX AZ so that means its time to get back out and detect. I wish I had been able to spend more time with my uncle out and about learning but that wasn't to be so. My uncle made me a convert to minleab back in 2005 when I hunted with him a few times and he kicked my butt. He was using an explorer xs and I had a whites xlt and he whooped me. So I bought an explorer 2 and and used that for a while, after I got used to it and started learning the tones and numbers I did very well. I do believe a zinc penny, silver dime, and wheat all sound very similar so that's why I go by the numbers and it works pretty well for me. I did all nickle sounds because well that is how my uncle taught me to get v and buffalo nickles when the other guys just pass over them because they think they are pull tabs. So fast forward to present day and I now have a explorer se. I believe it is one of the first as I bought it in 2008. It seems like it falses a lot compared to the explorer 2. I have bought a 12 inch sfx coil for it and have also used my sunray x5. No matter what it seems like it falses a lot more and maybe even the tones are a little off too. I read on this forum that some of the earlier SE had problems so I wonder if that's my deal. Is there a way to tell what batch the problem SE were in? I emailed mine lab today about the cost to get a software update and have not heard back from them yet. Any thoughts are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Justin

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

I would call them and ask them directly your questions.

 

[sgoss66]

packetstormin --

A couple things. First, I would put down a zinc penny and a silver dime (or even a copper penny) on the ground, about 12" apart, and run your coil repeatedly over them. Then, listen closely. They absolutely sound different; the zinc is a much lower tone than the silver dime. Copper pennies are more similar to silver dimes -- a more slight pitch difference, but the zinc is a decidedly lower tone. Reason I am suggesting that you do this is that hearing those differences in tone will really help you with your hunting using this machine.

As for the falsing -- the old falsing issues were not with the software, but with the coil. The old slimline coil, as I understand -- especially some of the early ones -- apparently tended to "false" alot. The newer "Pro" coil -- which is the only difference between and "SE" and an "SE Pro", is a much improved coil, most would agree.

BUT...I think the biggest issue you may have with respect to the falsing you are having is running your sensitivity too high. I believe the old Explorer 2 defaults to 16 sensitivity, whereas I believe (if I recall correctly) the SE's are set to 22 sensitvity as a default. This is a more sensitive setting than you were used to on your Ex. 2 -- and likely a reason you are finding it to "false" more. Run that sensitivity down to 16, and see if it behaves for you more like your old Ex. 2 did...

Hope this helps a bit.

Steve

 

[BuckeyeBrad]

Steve, Where did you get that crazy idea that "less is more"?

 

[packetstormin]

Thank you for the information. I will set my sens at 16 and give it a try. I also will five your suggestion about the zinc penny a try.

 

[dewcon4414]

Steve is right it was a coil issue.... in fact i still have the slim line and use it on the beach... darn thing still falses if you bump it at all. You might also take the upper rod apart and ensure your cable is tight.... mine loosened for some reason and caused a false. Next check for dirt between the cover and coil.... dont take much to make the SE false.

Dew

 

[Elton]

I use a Se Pro model.and am the least knowledgeable person on the Minelab forum...so can't really give advice about false signals, or not false issues.. I have with "Not" a lot of patience, I might add started to understand this great SE pro.... It is an amazing detector, that will find you many, many good targets once you learn it's language. Read Bryce's Posts, as he is a wealth of knowledge.

Good luck Sir, and looking forward to reading your finds posts.

 

[chuck ky]

if you like the smartfind screen you can tell the difference between zinc and copper. the zinc will be a little lower. i guess minelabs next improvements could include showing the cursor and the #'s at the same time.

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[sgoss66]

Hey Brad -- no idea where I got that idea from...

(The inside joke here is that Brad has "schooled" me on not running the SE Pro too "hot" -- as the falsing becomes a major problem if you do...and I had to learn the hard way; lowering sensitivity until the falsing decreases to a manageable level has been eye-opening for me, in terms of reducing the falsing and subsequently being able to pick out the more subtle hits of deeper coins...THANKS MUCH Brad).

I will say one more thing, though, packetstormin. You may, if you desire to hear the differences in tone between different coins, make sure that your machine's setting called "variability" is set to 10 (the maximum). I have run mine at 10, per Bryce's advice, from day 1, and so I'm not sure what the machine would sound like if running variability lower. However, IN THEORY, the lower of a variability setting you run, the fewer number of "pitches" or "tones" the machine will assign to various conductivity ranges. I'm presuming that if you set variability to "1" (the minimum), your machine would only give one tone to any detected object, no matter its VDI number (or, if not a single tone, maybe just a couple of tones for the entire range of 32 CO/FE values, something like that). But, the higher "variability" that you run, the greater the number of tonal pitches your machine will produce over the range of values. For instance, if you run "conductive" sounds, with variability 10, you get a subtle increase in pitch as your conductivity number increases -- such that a zinc penny has a decidedly different tone from a copper penny, or especially a silver dime. Likewise, if running ferrous sounds, you will get a subtle increase in pitch as your FE number decreases. My point is, (assuming you are running conductive sounds), if you hear no tonal difference between a zinc penny and a copper penny, you may have your variability set too low -- such that your machine is lumping the 24-25 CO number of a typical zinc penny in with the 27-28 CO number of a typical copper penny together -- i.e., assigning the same tone to the conductivity range which includes both of these targets...

Steve

 

[packetstormin]

Steve I think that was my issue. I set my variability to 10 and its much better when I go through my coin garden. The sensitivity setting is interesting in my opinion. I came from an explorer 2 so we would run those things as hot as we can down here in phoenix because the soil allows for it. I always ran my explorer at max sens and set to manual for sens. So I am going to go out on a limb and say that the se is much more sensitive than an explorer 2 because like you said it I run the se hot and set to manual it falses like crazy. I tried my coin garden with the se set at 16 manual and it seemed to do much better so I will stick with it and give it a try.

Thanks,

Justin

 

[sgoss66]

Justin --

Glad to hear that increasing your variability to 10 and lowering your sensitivity helped reduce falsing, and increase your ability to discern tones of different coin targets.

I find it interesting as well your observations about sensitivity...and that you feel the SE Pro is more sensitive than the 2. I do know that I also usually run my SE very hot, and as I mentioned, BuckeyeBrad suggested I lower it...to deal with the frustrating falsing issues which cause me to dig so many deep rusty nails whenever I am hunting a site where the coins are deep (and thus give a more subtle hit). In these types of sites, when trying to locate the deep coins, the falsing was driving me NUTS.

Steve

 

[packetstormin]

Just thought I would throw this out there as it is a bit of interesting information. I finally heard back from minelab regarding software updates on the Explorer SE, and well in my opinion it doesn't sound good. "Justin-

We cannot upgrade the Explorer SE software. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you." Now I remember sending my whites xlt in to get software updates every couple years. I believe whites would just plug in to the main board and then flash the new software rom. It seems that it is not that simple with the explorer se as I am guessing they would need to replace the entire main board to update the software.

 

[Buddysox]

Hey, Justin, I live in Phoenix also and know what you mean. We had a record heat summer and in one week it turned to fantastic in the low 70s, now we can hunt til next June. Just remember, we do have to put up with the whining of all who live in the snow belt about not being able to hunt.
I have a Exp2 and love it. That is, a while back a good friend got an SE and wanted me to teach him how hunt. I didn't know much about it and used it for a short time to check it out. NICE! It does seem to be more sensitive but in a good way. I always kick my sens. on the two up as far as I can, kinda tricky, but usually you can, with practice, get it just under where it falses and not have to listen to all the garbage. Stay with it and learn the "Language" as its called. You will be glad you did. And if you want to hunt with a couple of old farts who will tell you what we can, drop me a line.
John